Gyuu-don. (Syn. beef bowl, Yoshinoya)
Dear Yoshinoya patrons in the U.S. of A, you are being gypped.
As anybody who has ever eaten at a Yoshinoya in Japan will tell you, Yoshinoya in America sucks. There's more
fat than
beef; it's more salty than savory. But the droves of people waiting in line would have you believe otherwise. At C's request, I decided to take another shot at making
gyuu-don. (For my first attempt a couple years back, I had made the tragic mistake of making it too salty.)
My recipe is a combination of various recipes, including that of Kurihara Harumi (Japan's answer to pre-ankle-bracelet Martha Stewart). As it is with most Japanese dishes, the ingredients are simple:
soy sauce,
sugar,
mirin,
sake,
dashi stock,
onion and of course,
beef. But the simpler the recipe, the more important it is to use quality ingredients. For today's star ingredient -
beef, I had to settle for whatever happened to be thinly sliced and packaged at the local market, but Japanese markets usually carry very good
beef, tender and appropriately sliced for
shabu-shabu,
sukiyaki and the like.
Although I can't remember every moment that I enjoyed in Japan, I can recall certain sights, scents, sounds and emotions, even now after all this time. Walking home at night and catching a glimpse of Tokyo Tower peeping from behind my apartment building. The smell of fresh
melon-pan from Kobeya Kitchen every morning at the Ebisu JR Station. Barely making it onto the train, only to be standing too close for comfort between a sweaty salaryman and a
yamanba adjusting her fake lashes. Exploring the nooks and crannies of Shimokitazawa, while listening to M-flo on my iPod.
If you haven't picked up on it yet, I love Japan.
More specifically, I love Tokyo.
More honestly, I miss Tokyo.
A lot.
